On March 18, Barack Obama delivered one of the most powerful and rewarding speeches of any historical presidential candidate in recent memory. Obama put his best foot forward by directly confronting the United States’ racist history that lives in the fabric of our society today. Sure, this may not seem like a radical move at first glance. As college students and faculty, we have the potential privilege of discussing and theorizing issues of race to our hearts content. However, a good portion of the rest of the country doesn’t have this opportunity. Therefore, it’s an important problem to be discussed on a national level.

Racism is a topic that most political candidates try to subtly ignore. So, as one of those presidential candidates, Obama’s decision to bite the bullet and lead a speech devoted to issues of race should be viewed as a profound and radical move.

The most important argument of Obama’s speech dealt with the actual constructions of race. While many people may experience racism on an individual level, the foundation of racism is institutionalized and structural.

The thought of fighting racism seems to be an improbable act, which on some level, it is. The word racism carries a bundle of historical and personal implications that can’t be unwoven merely through conversation. To negate the prominent force of racism in our society is to be incredibly ignorant.

Obama did exactly the opposite: he discussed his experience of being raised by a black man and a white woman, and the ethical issues of abandoning his pastor, who believes that the United States can never transcend their racist past.

Obama rejected this claim as static and unproductive. Instead, Obama honestly and publicly addressed and embraced realistic fears, confusions, and prejudices of whites and the harsh realities of many black communities across the country.

By exposing these truths, Obama called for our country to move beyond our racial history to address problems that citizens of the United States are experiencing in the present day. Despite our country’s disturbing racial past, there are also problems occurring today that involve multiple identities.

For example, the tragedies of the war in Iraq cross racial boundaries with its ever-increasing death toll. In addition, our funding of the war has had a detrimental economic effect on the middle and lower classes of our society.

When dealing with these troubling issues, it’s essential that our society doesn’t collapse under our feet. To help prevent this, Obama exposed our country’s racial divide and how, if we begin to move beyond it, we will form “a more perfect union.”

The United States will undoubtedly be polarized by Obama’s speech, which is problematic given the issues he discusses. Although Obama took a brave and admirable first step in uncovering these historical and present issues, it’s important to understand that an effort to combat racism can’t end at the podium.

As a society, we must understand the institutional implications of racism that are alive in our own public policies. Racism plays a role in the creation of bad schools, the high unemployment rate, our miserable health care system, and our presence in Iraq.

Discussion and theorizing are important, but if we want actively change the presence of racism in our society, there needs to be a transformation of the rules that govern our country. With his speech, Obama began to point to some these problems. Hopefully, his promises for change will be acknowledged by the public and cemented in public office.